This is, so far, the story of open government data in many other countries; what's special about Kenya?

Firstly, as Johannes Zutt writes[4], this initiative arrives just as a new constitution [5]is being adopted by the country. There's an opportunity to affirm the practice and principles of open government at a time of national change; there's a community of local developers and activists eager to make use of the data; and a genuine appetite from the public for transparency and accountability.

Finally, Kenya is the first low-income group country [10]to have an open government data portal. This brings into focus the supply and demands sides of government information that other countries may take for granted. Raka Banerjee writes [11]that the call for open data should go hand in hand with a call for better quality data: data that might be collected by official government agencies or in this age, by citizens themselves.

On supply: The World Bank's indicators on country-level statistical capacity[12] measure various aspects of a government's statistical systems. You can see from an overview of Kenya[13] where World Bank programmes such as STATCAP [14]add value by strengthening these national systems, improving the supply of official government data. Open government initiatives of course require more than this; and there's a team in Kenya working across ministries and departments to make open government a sustained success.

On demand: with over a hundred requests from the public for new datasets[15] on the opendata.go.ke [1]site, it's clear that there's a desire for more information. People want data similar to what they might want in the USA: land registry, company registrations and employment statistics to name a few. Kenyans also want data that citizens of more developed countries may be less likely to ask for: fire protection information (how many fire engines are there per county?), school payment disbursement data (do government funds actually reach schools?) and livestock populations.

Open data in Kenya is special: it comes at a time of national change; it’s got a head start on tools and expertise from the global open data community and it’s happening in a country where the information ecosystem is still maturing.